Most students are familiar with plagiarism because it is drilled into our heads at school. Yet we lack knowledge of copyright and copyright infringement.

We are constantly reminded that plagiarism is unacceptable; we make it a point to include citations to the original author when writing term papers. However, we do not hold others’ work to the same standard, which is where copyright come in.

A copyright is a set of rights that helps protect an author’s original work. Its illegal distribution is called copyright infringement.

The movie and music industries are often frustrated when copyrighted material. which bring in billions of dollars. is often passed around freely on torrent websites, where users share any file they want.

A copyrighted work can be used though, if the copyright is not infringed. Four factors determine whether a work is being fairly used: The purpose of its use, the nature of copyrighted work, the amount of the work being used, and whether there is any commercial gain.

“They (users) are limited to copying for productive purposes such as news reporting, giving criticism, teaching, scholarship and research,” said Robert Humphrey, journalism professor.

Stephen L. Davis, intellectual property lawyer, said most people are unfamiliar with copyright law.

It might take a personal experience to gain an appreciation for copyright, which is what happened to me.

During my junior year at Sacramento State, I came up with the idea of creating my own fashion and entertainment publication, which would be called Jucie Magazine. I went as far as creating a physical prototype of the magazine.

In an attempt to recruit interested students, I shared the prototype with a classmate, who I had wanted to be a part of the publication. She seemed interested, but never came to any of the informational meetings.

Earlier this year, I discovered through a Facebook invitation that she had created a website called Juicy.I looked at the website and, aside from the name, the content was an online version of Jucie Magazine.

I stopped short of contacting her to tell her how fake and disrespectful she was.

Although it may just be a coincidence, soon after, on Jan. 08, XXL Magazine, a major hip-hop publication, announced the debut of its new tabloid magazine, Juicy.

I was devastated. Like most students, I had avoided registering a copyright for my work because I was not familiar with the process and did not think the idea would ever become something big.

Davis said a common misconception is that obtaining a copyright is expensive.

“The cost to copyright is about $30, depending on how many works one may need to copyright,” Davis said.

Start protecting your work by copyrighting it. Your idea could hit it big in someone else’s hands if it is not protected.

Talecia Bell can be reached at [email protected].